An engine failure may occur while a vehicle, which is powered by an internal-combustion engine, is travelling. Furthermore, in a vehicle (EV) powered by an electric motor or a vehicle (HV) partially powered by an electric motor, a Ready-OFF state may occur, where the drive force cannot be transmitted to the wheels while the vehicle is travelling. These circumstances occur, for example, when the vehicle runs out of gas, when an emergency stop operation is performed, or when an external operation is received.
When an engine failure occurs or when a Ready-OFF state occurs while the vehicle is traveling, generally, an evacuating operation is preferable, such as parking the vehicle on a road shoulder while travelling by inertia. However, there are cases where it is difficult for the driver to immediately correctly recognize the state of the vehicle. For this reason, there is conventionally known a guidance device for teaching the method of operating a vehicle (see, for example, Patent Document 1), Patent Document 1 discloses a vehicle guidance device for monitoring the state of electrical appliances in the vehicle, sending the driver an emergency treatment method under a condition that the monitor data exceeds a threshold, and providing information for causing the vehicle to safely stop or travel.
Incidentally, when an engine failure occurs or when a Ready-OFF state occurs because the driver performed an emergency stop operation, the vehicle can immediately recover a state where travelling is possible. However, the button for the emergency stop operation is disposed at a position where the button can be operated from the driver's seat, and therefore the button can be unintentionally operated, in cases other than when the driver intentionally performs an emergency stop operation. However, the driver who has unintentionally operated the button cannot understand why an engine failure has occurred or why a Ready-OFF state has occurred, and cannot perform an operation for recovering the state where travelling is possible. Even when an engine failure has occurred or a Ready-OFF state has occurred in a similar manner as described above, it is preferable to provide the driver with guidance specifically for recovering the state where travelling is possible in a case where an emergency stop operation has been performed. However, there is a problem that the vehicle guidance device described in Patent Document 1 is only for monitoring monitor data, and does not consider a case where an emergency stop operation has been performed unintentionally.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-089332